A Merry Change
by WordsAblaze
Summary: Dan and Phil are single parents who want the same toy for their kid, but they keep running into each other and arguing until they reach a compromise. Sometimes, changing your usual ways can be a bridge to new relationships… Written for the Phandom Xmas Fic Exchange!


_thanks to @theweareinfiniteposts on tumblr for looking over it for me :)_

- **A Merry Change** -

"Dadda?"

Phil sighs as he hears James' voice, then starts to make his way back to the bedroom he'd left only five minutes ago. James is sitting up on the bed by the time he pokes his head in, and the nightlight is glowing as brightly as it can.

"I'm here," Phil whispers, smiling.

James yawns before mumbling, "I'm cold."

Shaking his head, Phil finds an extra blanket in the drawer, then wraps it around James' shoulders. He carefully tucks the sleepy boy back into bed and carefully kisses his forehead. "Sweet dreams, James."

"Night, Dadda," James replies, his eyes dropping.

Phil waits until his son's breathing evens out, making sure that James is asleep before quietly dimming the nightlight and heading out of the room for the second time that evening, carefully closing the door behind him.

He's only managed to pour himself a glass of water before his brain once again reminds him that he hasn't yet found a pair of long-distance walkie-talkies. Phil sighs and puts down his glass, yet another drink lost to the looming thought of Christmas shopping.

- **merry-line-break** -

"Daaaaad?"

Dan groans to himself but he's walking to Michael's room before he can ask himself why. Of course his son is standing on the bed with a bucket on his head, of course he is.

"'M stuck!"

"How did you even-" Dan cuts himself off when Michael wobbles and goes to catch him, before pulling the bucket off as gently as he can.

"Guess what time it is?" Dan asks, raising an eyebrow as he tucks Michael back into his duvet.

"Bedtime?"

"Good guess. Goodnight, kiddo."

Michael attempts to reply but yawns instead, his eyes dropping faster than Dan's stomach when he has to make a speech in front of more than five people. Before Dan can even turn the lights off, Michael's drifted off so he just smiles, picks up the bucket, and goes to flop back on the sofa.

And is instantly drawn to the Christmas tree in the corner, or more specifically, the empty space beneath it. Dan sighs, then pulls out his laptop and starts looking at the different kinds of walkie-talkies available.

- **merry-line-break** -

After a ridiculously small amount of sleep, Dan wakes to the sound of his alarm, or rather, feeling of his alarm. Groaning, he sleepily curses and scrabbles at the duvet until he finds the offending device and snoozes the vibrations, giving him another five minutes to figure out how waking up works. Which is plenty of time, really. Especially since his phone is nearly dead and he can't mindlessly scroll through some form of social media until he truly awakens.

It's a full hour later, once he's dropped Michael off at school and shoved the dishes in the dishwasher when he heads out to buy some walkie-talkies for the Christmas present.

"Why is winter so cold?" he asks himself before realising the stupidity of his question.

Luckily, nobody hears him and he can walk into the toy store unjudged.

A dozen minutes and a close call with a shelf later, he finds the pair he needs – long distance ones that look professional enough for those times when Michael wants to pretend he's in the army. The only problem is the man who reaches for them at the same time, the rather beautiful man who Dan might have admired in any other situation.

"No!" he shouts instead.

The man jumps so hard he hits his head on the shelf, immediately wincing. "What?"

"I need those!"

"Well, so do I, thank you not so very much."

Dan rolls his eyes, not wanting to admit he was amused by that. "I really do need them!"

The man sighs almost apologetically. "Look, I'm sure you do, but I've been looking for these for an absolute age."

"And what makes you think I haven't been doing the same?" Dan asks with his hands on his hips.

"I was here first!"

"No way you were!"

"I was! And that wasn't even a proper sentence!" The sheer amount of sass in his voice almost sets Dan aquiver.

"Well I'm sorry, I didn't think I was back in school!" Dan retorts, "Look, can't you just buy a different pair?"

"Can't you just stop arguing?"

Before either of them can make another reply, there are two security guards glowering at them. "We're going to have to ask you to leave."

"Wait, can we buy the-"

"Now," they bark in unison.

Both Dan and the other man throw their hands up in frustration as they strop out of the door. Dan glares at the other man as soon as they're on the pavement. "Gee, thanks for that."

"Right back at you," the man says coldly – well, more like lukewarmly; the lack of ferocity in his voice makes Dan laugh, not that he'd ever admit it aloud.

- **merry-line-break** -

"Can we get the lion bars?" James asks as they near the shop.

Phil grins to himself. "Is this going to be my legacy?"

"What's a legacy?"

"It's something you make in your life only to give it to whoever comes after you," Phil replies.

"Can't you keep some for yourself?" James sounds so confused, Phil just wants to pretend he'd never asked the question. Instead of contemplating time travel, he just nods.

"Do not unzip that coat!" Phil narrows his eyes at his son who decides to pretend he wasn't going to do anything of the sort.

James grins sheepishly and runs ahead, darting into the aisles as if they were his holiday home. Phil sighs but someone crashes into him before he can chase after his son – someone who turns out to be a rather familiar face.

"You again?" he asks the man he'd argued with over the walkie-talkies. "Never mind, excuse me!"

"You're the one in the way!"

"I am not!" Phil argues, mildly offended.

"Stop talking, I have to find my son!"

"Alright, Marlin," Phil mutters as he goes to find James, not even caring if the other man hears him.

He swears he can hear a chuckle behind him but there's no hysteria more important than James so he carries on sliding around the store. Despite practically knowing the entire store's layout off by heart, he can't seem to figure out where he hasn't looked and ends up crashing into someone again.

The man swears, then groans. "What are you, stalking me?"

Phil scoffs, "You wish."

"I wouldn't waste a single wish on you," the man replies, but somehow the dimples in his cheeks and the shine in his almost existential brown eyes dials down the insult.

The two of them cough awkwardly, both muttering something about apologies before heading back from the direction they came, changing their minds, and passing each other for what they half hope is the last time.

"Dadda!" James squeals, hugging Phil from behind and scaring the life out of him.

"James Lester! What do you think you're doing, running away and scaring me like that?"

"Sorry," James says quietly. Phil smiles and kneels down, pulling the boy towards him and wrapping him in a hug.

"That's okay, cub. Now, lion bars?"

James' eyes light up but this time he grabs Phil's hand, pulling him along as well. Phil laughs as he allows himself to be led into the confectionary section, catching sight of the man from earlier running past but not wanting to ruin the mood, simply ignoring it.

 **-merry-line-break-**

"Dad, guess what?" Michael says excitedly, poking Dan's back.

"You discovered the secret to never-ending pizza?"

Michael giggles, shaking his head. "I made a friend!"

"Another one?" Dan asks, shaking his head at how quickly young children can make and break friendships.

"In the store. His name was James!" Michael blurts, grinning from ear to ear. He then jumps up and goes to collect something from the windowsill, something that turns out to be a new Christmas wish list. "Can you give this to Santa too?"

"Another request?" Dan reads the messy yet endearing writing. "A sleepover with James? I haven't even met him…"

In response, he receives the largest puppy dog eyes known to exist. "Please?" Michael asks.

"I'm okay with it if Santa agrees." Dan's barely even focusing anymore, wondering how on earth he's meant to figure out who this James kid is and where Michael happened to meet him.

Michael's gleeful expression is the only reason Dan once again leaves the house to find a sleeping bag, trying to at least be prepared in case James turns up or something.

Laziness sends him to the nearest outdoors-y store he knows so he already knows where everything will be and it's not hard to find the kids' sleeping bags. The only problem is the other man walking to the same section as him.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Dan exclaims.

"I'm actually called Phil but 'kidding me' sounds like an interesting name…" the man, who he can now identify as Phil, says with a smirk.

"Well now I have the upper hand because you don't know my name," Dan says, biting his lip at the thought of how childish that sounds.

"Sure you do, Dan."

"How-?" he trails off as Phil just winks, turning to the sleeping bags with a frown, but jumps in as soon as Phil reaches for the one he needs. "Oh no, I need that one!"

"Why do you always need exactly what I want?" Phil asks, clearly exasperated.

Dan puts his arms on his hips. "It's not my fault you seem to be stalking me."

"I am not stalking you!"

"Then how did you know my name?" Dan fires, needing closure.

Phil just shakes his head. "You're wearing a sticker that says your name…"

Dan glances down in shock, only to see what is obviously Michael's messy writing on a piece of paper that's been taped to his jacket.

"Are you gentlemen okay?" someone asks from behind them and they both jump in unison, literally flying a few centimetres off the floor.

"Do you have another one of these?" Dan asks, recovering first.

The girl smiles at them and nods. "Yeah, we'll have one in the back, give me a minute."

 **-merry-line-break-**

"Is that for me?" James asks as soon as Phil shuts the door behind him, resulting in the second jumpscare of the day.

"Don't you already have a sleeping bag, cub?"

"Oh yeah… is it for you?"

Phil gives him a look, a look to ask 'do you really think a clumsy person over six foot tall can fit into a children's sleeping bag?' before shaking his head with a laugh and walking through the apartment so he can dump the item in James' room.

James follows him like a shadow, repeating the tune to Mario before excitedly jumping. "Is it for Michael?"

"What?"

"Did you get the sleeping bag for Michael?" James repeats. "You know, my new friend?"

Raising his eyebrows but not wanting to disappoint the boy, Phil nods. It's only later, once they've both eaten dinner and are waiting for James to fall asleep, that Phil decides to investigate this new friend. He carefully closes the book he was reading as a bedtime story and places it on the bedside table before turning to his son.

"So, how do I invite Michael over?"

James' eyes light up. "We knew you'd ask that! Can we go to the park tomorrow?"

"What?" Phil goes blank. "Yes, we can, but what does that have to do with your sleepover?"

"M'tired…" James yawns, despite usually keeping Phil up for longer than should be allowed and somehow managing to get away with it because puppy dog eyes are Phil's arch nemesis.

Phil giggles to himself but allows the evasion, knowing he was no better as a kid.

"Up and at em, cub!" Phil kisses the top of James' head the next morning, waking him up almost immediately.

"Can we go to space?" James asks, clearly still half asleep or something.

"No, but we can go to the park," Phil answers, trying not to laugh at his son's sleepy rambles; he's probably asked weirder questions while awake to be honest.

James beams at him so widely it's as if the sun suddenly has a new senpai. The two of them assemble a breakfast and make sure they're wearing coats before heading out to the park, James skipping and pulling an amused but exasperated Phil along behind him. They're both giggling by the time they actually reach the park but James immediately runs off, Phil shaking his head and lifting himself up onto a ledge because benches are overrated.

"Phil?" someone asks after a while and he almost falls off the ledge like Humpty Dumpty.

"Oh my… Dan?"

Dan awkwardly waves as he nods, his warm eyes shining like melted chocolate in the sun.

"So, uh, I didn't know you lived around here?" Dan offers as small talk.

"It's a small world," Phil replies; he's never been good at small talk.

Luckily, Dan all but giggles and leans on the ledge next to Phil, which gives Phil the opportunity to realise he would probably be shorter than Dan.

The two of them just remain as they are for far too long, staring at the endless screen of sadness and cool, collected calm, otherwise known as the sky, above them. They do, of course, sneak glances at each other every now and then but they don't actually move more than a centimetre until their children come up to them with sly grins.

"Michael-?"

"James-?"

Dan and Phil stare at each other in shock as they realise they'd completely forgotten why they were there in the first place and so had ignored the possibility of being there for the exact same reason.

 **-merry-line-break-**

There's a moment where Dan can't believe his luck and he wonders whether or not he's dreaming or hallucinating. Only a moment, though. As soon as the moment of confusion passes, he coughs. "You're…?"

Phil nods slowly.

Their sons decide to speed things along by talking at 50 miles per hour and explaining that they're now best friends and should never be separated so naturally, their parents should be friends too because… logic. At least, that's what Dan thinks he hears, he can't be fully certain.

Dan shakes his head disbelievingly. "I thought he was making it up!"

"I know, who makes a best friend in a grocery store?" Phil agrees.

Now that they're not arguing, Dan can't help thinking Phil's voice is actually heavenly.

It's weird how it's so much easier to argue with a stranger you don't like than to think badly of your son's best friend's father. On second thought, Dan decides that isn't weird and shakes his head at himself, wondering why he's even debating that right now.

"You know," he starts, then pauses as Phil looks at him with the most subtly kaleidoscopic eyes in all of history, "we could just both buy the walkie-talkies?"

Phil squints at him for a second before nodding. "Sure."

Which is exactly why the four of them end up back at the toy store, apologies at the ready, excited smiles on all their faces.

As it turns out, they don't need the apologies, instead just smoothly buying the walkie-talkies - that still hadn't been restocked and even if they didn't need a second pair, that doesn't seem like a good business - and puzzling over how to wrap the gift if it's for different people who live in different houses.

"Sleepover, remember, Dadda?" James says to Phil and Dan mentally facepalms.

It seems like Phil does too because they both share a look and nod at one another.

Even though the walkie talkies are usually used for connecting people over long distances, there's no rule to say their purpose can't be slightly amended for the sake of new friendships and relationships.

- **merry-end-**

 _Hope you enjoyed! How'd you find it? Merry belated phan christmas!_


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